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Beautiful and useful: Ceramics by Louise Graham

I must admit, I was confused by these items at first. I thought Louise Graham had made ceramics to look like rubbish, but it's much cleverer than that. What's she's done is design ceramic pieces able to transform what is generally household rubbish into simple, beautiful objects.

Available from Pedlars, the Milk Pourer (£34.50) fits pretty much any milk container, the Egg Cup Stand (£27.95) uses Velcro to turn an egg box into an egg cup and the Butter/Cheese Dish (£27.95) handle screws into the top of a margarine container. Genius.

Ovetto's futuristic recycling bin

No, this isn't Eve from Wall-e, it's the 'Ovetto' recycling bin.

Made from recycled plastic (and also available in black and multi), it features three compartments that rotate around a central bottle and can crusher.

It's a great idea and it looks pretty cool (it's a future design classic, apparently), but it's not cheap at £129 from ecocentric.

Krups Dolce Gusto coffee maker

Without looking at the title of this post, I'm not sure anyone would guess what this actually is. But you have looke and you know it's a coffee maker and a cool looking one at that. It uses a capsule system to make roast and ground coffee with "a high 15 bar pressure to ensure the full extraction of flavour, while the thermoblock heating technology ensures the perfect brewing temperature". Not only that but it also has an auto cut off after 20 minutes so it doesn't waste electricity.

A free pack of capsules is included along with a latte macchiato glass and a cappucino cup and saucer which does slightly pose a problem if more than one of you wants a cup in the morning. It's £78 at John Lewis.

Like this? More kitchenware

Candy coloured hearts bunting at Adili

I've been searching for some simple but pretty things to add to my daughter's new bedroom and I think this pretty string of candy coloured patchwork cotton hearts might do the trick. there's a ton of uses for them - add them to a curtain pole like bunting, leave them to hang down the curtains like a trim, thread through shelves and so on.

Made from recycled fabric, they're eco friendly - the manufacturer also uses the proceeds to help run a school in Rajasthan - and they cost just £5 at Adili for a 147cm long string.

Best on the Web for... eco living

Every week we'll bring you a themed post of our favourite links for the best the Web has to offer. This week we're taking a look at eco living.

1. Ecocentric - the man behind this site is Oliver Heath, TV presenter, writer and BBC Homefront Young Designer of the Year. The range of products available on this site is huge, pick from a 'knit your own monkey' for the kids craft project, £14.99, a recycled glass decanter for £29.90, an eco media player for £129 and so much more.

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